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Bernie Kuntz: Hunting bans continue

Anti-hunting radicals have an impressive history in banning hunting seasons, and their work

continues on today.

For example, a couple decades ago the Democrat-controlled Legislature in Sacramento banned

all mountain lion hunting in California with absolutely no biological data that pointed toward a

threatened lion population. The ban continues to this day, in spite of the fact that several joggers and at least one child have been killed in lion attacks, and a number of other people mauled. Lions also have severely limited desert sheep populations in the southeastern part of that state.

Sometime in the 1990s, busy liberals in Denver and Boulder succeeded in banning hound

hunting for black bears in Colorado. Again, there was no biological reason for the ban....it was just that for some city types it just seemed cruel to be chasing black bears with hounds. (What is really cruel is owning hounds and not allowing them to hunt!) The ban still is in effect.

A decade ago a group of big city liberals in the parliament in Ottawa determined that they did

not like the idea of hunters pursuing black bears, even though Ontario has many thousands of them, so they completely shut down the bear hunting season. As one might expect, bear/human conflicts have increased dramatically, so now there are some rumblings about reinstating a hunting season.

The same thing happened in New Jersey—liberal nuts demonstrated and caused a furor when

the wildlife department opened a limited bear hunting season in that state some years ago. They finally succeeded in getting it shut down, but last I read the season was open again because of all the complaints about bear depredation and human/bear incidents.

Well, now the same course of action has taken place in British Columbia, the far western

province that has a rich history of big game hunting. Liberals in Victoria and Vancouver decided they didn't like the idea of grizzly bear hunting so a guy named Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development (how's that for a title?) arbitrarily has set November 30 th for the date that grizzly bear hunting will be closed in B.C.

"By bringing trophy hunting of grizzlies to an end, we're delivering on our commitment to British

Columbians," he said. "This action is supported by the vast majority of people across our province."

Nonsense. It is supported by the liberals in Victoria and Vancouver who run the provincial

Government!

From SPORTS AFIELD, I read about an article in Vancouver Island's CTV news that quoted Donaldson as saying, "The purpose of the ban isn't because the number of killings is unsustainable for the grizzly population, but largely in response to public opinion. People in the province have come to their understanding, their point of view, that the trophy hunting of grizzly bears is not a socially acceptable practice in B.C. in 2017."

There are about 15,000 grizzly bears in B.C. and hunters take about 250 bears per year—170 by residents, 80 by non-residents. (My father and I shot our first grizzly bears there in spring of 1973.) Grizzly bear hunting has been allowed in B.C. during my entire lifetime, and I have read stories of bear hunts that took place in B.C. in the 1910s and 1920s. So I suspect there has been a grizzly bear hunting season for as long as there was a province of British Columbia. But as of next Thursday-- -no more.

All these hunt bans are indications of what can happen when urban liberals dominate governments at the peril of the more conservative, rural populace.